Please Ignore Vera Dietz

King, A., & Knopf, I. (2010). Please ignore Vera Dietz. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Vera Dietz is a senior in high school, while working full-time delivering pizzas.   She just lost her best friend Charlie when he supposedly died in a pet shop fire that he set up. She is having a hard time getting over the death of her friend.  She knows he didn’t do it and wants to clear his name.  In flashbacks, we learn that Charlie and Vera were best friends since they were young. To escape family problems, he hangs out with Vera and they build a treehouse. Charlie’s dad abuses his mother and Vera’s mother left her father when she was twelve years old.  As they get older, Charlie starts hanging out the wrong crowd and starts selling his underwear to perverted men, which scared her.  Vera is still doing good in school and volunteers at a the pet shop because she loves animals. Vera does not like Charlie’s new friends, especially a girl named Jenny Flick, who becomes Charlie’s girlfriend. This causes conflict between her and Charlie.  They stop speaking to each other and he even throws dog feces at her.  In her flashback before Charlie died, he had gone to Vera to ask for protection because Jenny was going to kill him and burn down the pet shop.  Vera did not believe him and thought he was just being dramatic. Vera decides to meet Charlie anyways at the pet shop, but when she gets there she sees Jenny burning down the building, but doesn’t find Charlie. She thinks Charlie has stood her up and gets upset.  The next morning, she finds out he is dead and the people blame him for the fire.  In the present day, Vera sees Charlie’s ghosts telling her to go to the police and tell them what she knows.   She is also trying to repair her relationship with her father.  She finally decides that she want to clear his name and goes to the treehouse they built. There she finds a note that Charlie left her with the events leading up to his death. She decides to go to the police station with her dad and gives them the letter.  At the end, Vera and her dad go on a trip to enjoy their lives. I think this book is age-appropriate for high school students from 9^th-12^th grade due to some the content in it.  It talks about sex videos, perverted men, selling underwear, arson, and many other topics.  This book in my opinion would not be appropriate for kids any younger.  As a teacher, I would have students compare Vera and Charlie’s relationship with that of Romeo and Juliet’s, and have them come up with their own literary couple to compare them to as well.  This book has several themes like friendship (Vera and Charlie growing-up), lies and deceit (She knows that Charlie didn’t do it and is faced with a choice of clearing his name.), choices, guilt and blame (She blamed herself for not believing him and struggles with his death.)  The author also uses some literary style when she has the Pagoda, an inanimate landmark, talk.  It shares its thoughts and feelings in a conversational style.  The plot of the story was well-developed.  It started with the exposition that Charlie is dead, then the rising action where Vera is not able to deal with his death, drinks, and doesn’t want to clear his name due to him being mean to her.  Next, the climax when she drinks too much, hit her head, has therapy, and starts to repair her relationships. Then the falling action, where he decides to tell the police to clear Charlie’s name, and finally the resolution, after she finds peace with her dad.